Outages, cyberattacks are top supply chain disruptions

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Dive Brief:

The latest BCI Supply Chain Resiliency Report revealed the top causes of supply chain disruption are telecommunication outages, cyberattacks, data breaches and loss of talent. The report also noted that fire increased from 14th most disruptive to 7th most disruptive to supply chains.

Any one of the aforementioned disruptions can cause a 55% loss in productivity, a 46% increased cost of working, and an increase in customer complaints.

The report also noted that 74% of the surveyed companies (408 respondents from 64 countries) have a business continuity plan in place that emphasizes reporting supply chain disruptions, but 63% "do not use any technology to analyze, track and monitor the performance of their supply chains."

Dive Insight:

When it comes to supply chain resiliency, you'd think companies would prioritize supply chain security so as to reduce disruptions to minor bumps and mitigate risk. But that's not always as easy as it sounds, and sometimes it is because of the nature of the disruption.

According to the report, most of the businesses surveyed do not use technology to evaluate their supply chain's performance, which means some businesses could be behind on digitization. That's a real risk, especially when tech-related disruptions are the biggest supply chain disruptions.

What's equally troubling is that 51% of the respondents haven't insured their supply chains against disruption at all. That's one simple step all companies can take toward better supply chain security: as cyberattacks become increasingly common, insuring one's operations should be a priority.

Perhaps as more companies arrange business continuity plans, supply chain disruption prevention and mitigation will be addressed. Since the top disruptions are tech-related, companies should consider digital security an imperative.